Jurgen Klopp has insisted he WON'T be able able to match Arsene Wenger's incredible 22 year stint at a Premier League club.

Instead the Reds boss - who paid a glowing tribute to Wenger as one of the great influences on modern football – admitted that he will get out before the job leaves him unable to walk.

The Arsenal manager shocked the football world with the timing of his announcement that he will quit at the end of the season, but Klopp said it wasn't a surprise.

The German coach has long suggested he doesn't want to die on the touchline, but when asked yesterday if that was because of the stress of the job, he replied with a huge smile: “No, it's because of my age!”

He is still only 50, and despite a small health scare earlier in the season says it is not time for him to follow Wenger out of the door...though he knows he will not go on for quite as long as the Arsenal legend.

Jurgen Klopp and Arsene Wenger shake hands in match back in December (Image: Getty Images Europe)

Klopp has got the better of Wenger three times in five Premier League meetings (Image: Getty Images Europe)

“It is quite intense, that is true. I love what I do and I enjoy it. But it is intense. But most jobs are really intense. The big difference is that we are constantly in focus,” he explained.

“Do I need the fact that I am famous, that everybody knows me wherever I go. No. I don't need it a bit. I don't feel special but it happens. I would be really happy when that stops one day.

“When I stop nobody will remember me. That is not a problem for me. That is rather a dream. I don't need it.

“But it is part of the business. We get really well paid. That is OK. We can have the life I never dreamed of at one point but I don't want to have this life when I cannot walk any more. I don't need football to be happy. At the moment I love it.

“There will be a moment - and I don't know when it is - when I say thank you very much. There is always the next guy to do the job. That is how it is. I love what I do. It is not too intense.

“To deal with it, everything is fine but at one point that will be enough and someone else will take over. That is all. It is different to 20 years ago, 100%. There is no time for anything any more.”

Klopp says it is the constant expectation, without any time to build or create anything, that makes management so hard these days.

Wenger had 20 seasons of taking Arsenal into the Champions' League, but after just one year of failing to make Europe's elite competition, the fans were baying for his blood. And he says that takes it toll.

Arsene Wenger & Jurgen Klopp (Image: Arsenal FC/Getty Images)

“When I first came to Liverpool, I was here three days to train and everyone was waiting for an impact in my first game against Tottenham.

“That is crazy in itself. There is no impact. Everyone was surprised that we played like before. In three days?? Everyone wants results immediately. But that is the life. Everything is fine. I am healthy. I am at a wonderful club with a fantastic team. It is all fine.”

Klopp believes Wenger is one of the true management greats...even if he's never lost to the Arsenal boss! “I was surprised but it is his decision and you have to respect that. He was, and is still, an influencer in football.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp gestures (Image: REUTERS)

“He has a fantastic career, an outstanding personality and a really big player in the business where usually the thing changes overnight and he was there for so long. How many years? (22). That's long and very successful.

“Maybe in the last few months not everyone was happy any more about this or that result but that is normal.

“He always developed teams and brought in fantastic players and was the dominating guy in the mid-90s and 2000s when he was winning pretty much everything playing wonderful football.

“I always admired his work – since I've been in England it is a bit different as we have to challenge – but when I was in Germany he was always a big role model in the job and it will be different without him.”